Bookworm: Built to Last

Jim Collins and Jerry I Porras explore the successful habits of visionary companies.

Who wrote this book?

Jerry I Porras, a professor of orgnaisational behaviour and Jim Collins, who describes himself as “a student and teacher of what makes great companies tick, and a Socratic advisor to leaders in the business and social sectors”.

What’s a company got to do to survive in this big bad world? Just come up with an idea?

No. The first myth that Collins and Porras seek to bust is that ideas – or, rather, single magical, transformative ideas – are the be-all and end-all of growing visionary companies.

Less than 20% of the companies the authors studied in their research at the Stanford Graduate School of Business began with a single product. Not only was the product unnecessary, it may even have been a hindrance; without a single idea to focus on, companies could invest their energy in making themselves the kind of machine that could create and capitalise on ideas.

So, the secret is to launch a company and wait for the ideas to come?

The important thing is that the company is one in which great ideas are constantly generated. In order for this to happen, a company needs to encourage talented people to experiment.

One of the companies evaluated in Collins’ and Porras’ book is 3M, which encouraged its employees to spend 15% of their time on passion projects of their own. Without this policy, the world might never have been blessed with Post-Its, which were a collaboration between two workers dreaming up two different ideas.

Lots of experiments means lots of failure. That sounds risky.

This is one of the authors’ central findings: that visionary companies fail often. Failure within healthy, visionary companies is not punished; if anything, it is encouraged so that further experimentation can happen, leading to possible future success.

But companies need to prioritise profits, otherwise they won’t grow.

Profit is necessary, but Collins and Porras note that companies are driven more by their core ideology than by their drive to earn money. A company whose primary objective is to make its shareholders rich would, the authors’ research suggests, not last very long.

So, stick to one thing and keep doing it?

Not necessarily. Collins and Porras write about something called “the genius of the and” – that visionary companies experiment and develop while keeping in mind their central ideology.

In practice, this means that, if a core ideology is distinct while being sufficiently broad, a company can endlessly innovate while staying on the path it originally set out on. They avoid “the tyranny of the or”, explain the authors.

Could you give an example?

Yes, Collins and Porras mention that Boeing’s priority is to be a pioneer in aviation, but the manifestation of that core goal needn’t involve building rockets; at any point, Boeing could release a brand-new type of flying car, for example, and remain true to the tenets on which the company was founded.

That all sounds very positive. Is it too good to be true?

Well, the authors do also point out that visionary companies can be compared to cults. If a business has a core ideology, and people driven to produce work that cleaves to that ideology, people who stick out either will be fired or may want to leave.

Hopefully, the cult analogy doesn’t stretch too far.

You’re right. Whereas cults tend to revolve around a single personality whose death often signals the collapse of whatever philosophy they had inspired, visionary companies cannot put all their eggs in the charisma basket; they have to be bigger than one individual so that employees are driven to pursue the company’s ideology whenever a key member of the team departs.

What am I most likely to say after reading this book?

 “Failure is good. Failure is necessary.”

What am I least likely to say after reading this book?

“I’ve got a great idea. I’ve got charisma. I’m ready to start my own company.”